"Draw What You See." Sounds simple, right? It is, but then again it takes concentration. Most of us draw what we think we see. There is the classic example of eyes. The almond or football shape almost “hieroglyphic” style that we recognize as eyes are not what eyes really look like. Or tree trunks. Brown sticks with branches at evenly spaced intervals with puffy cotton-like green clouds stuck on top. Have you really ever looked at a tree trunk?

Conclusion: Remove the filters that you have been viewing the world through. Know that eyeballs are spheres, covered by flaps of skin. See tree trunks in their infinite variety of colors, (ranging from white to ocher-pink to red-umber to blue-gray) and see various textures.

Simplify: Try to block out your knowledge of the objects as they are, a flower or a dog, see shapes and light vs. dark. Squint, blur your vision and let the vague areas of light and dark guide you.

Faces are something that many people have difficulty rendering. Hands and feet are also intimidating. When I have trouble with hands and feet, I remember my own rule…simplify. I don’t think “hands and feet”; I think “shapes and shadows.”